Sony has announced that it's spinning off its home entertainment electronics business into a joint venture with rival TV maker TCL. The two companies plan to sign agreements by March 2026 that would give TCL 51 percent control of the business, while Sony will keep 49 percent.

This won't mean any immediate, outward changes once the ink is dry. Sony says the agreements would lead to a third, global company in April 2027, but that assumes the deal isn't slowed or halted by regulators. Even if it isn't, it could take time before any new products are released by this company. Sony and TCL expect that products produced by the new firm will carry the Sony and Bravia brands, while using TCL's display technology and manufacturing infrastructure.

Sony's release describes how the new venture will work:

"The joint venture will operate globally, handling the full process from product development and design to manufacturing, sales, logistics, and customer service for products including televisions and home audio equipment."

In a report on the change yesterday morning, Bloomberg notes that Japanese TV companies have lost ground to Chinese and Korean companies in recent years, and that although Bravia TVs have continued to maintain a niche at the high-end, Sony has struggled to compete on price. The company seemingly giving ground in its home entertainment hardware business now comes as a sting after so many decades of Sony being synonymous with high-quality TVs, from its Trinitron CRTs to its excellent Bravia OLEDs.

Over at The Verge this morning, TV expert John Higgins points out that Sony already relies heavily on various manufacturing partners. He is bearish on the idea that this is the end of Sony as a home entertainment hardware maker, and suggests that it could actually lead to something of a Bravia TV renaissance, with Sony's TVs gaining access to more panel tech and TCL's streamlined manufacturing pipeline. For those of us on the ground, that could mean more affordable TVs from the company with the best image processing in the business, and who knows? Maybe Sony Bravia TVs start competing with IGN's favorite gaming TVs.

Wes is a freelance writer (Freelance Wes, they call him) who has covered technology, gaming, and entertainment steadily since 2020 at Gizmodo, Tom's Hardware, Hardcore Gamer, and most recently, The Verge. Inside of him there are two wolves: one that thinks it wouldn't be so bad to start collecting game consoles again, and the other who also thinks this, but more strongly.